


A Tale of Two Thanksgivings

by kenzz_95



Series: Trektober 2020 [30]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Established Relationship, Holiday Cards, Just like...the concept of pie, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:00:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27310840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kenzz_95/pseuds/kenzz_95
Summary: Leonard has to work his first two Thanksgivings with Jim, but his boyfriend has plans for holiday cards and pie, so even after long holiday shifts it's hard not to feel special and loved.
Relationships: James T. Kirk/Leonard "Bones" McCoy
Series: Trektober 2020 [30]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1948633
Comments: 13
Kudos: 50
Collections: Trektober 2020





	1. Their First Thanksgiving

**Author's Note:**

> Trektober Day 31: Holidays
> 
> This is gonna work best as a sequel. Also, I'm splitting it onto two chapters because it makes the most sense formatting wise and I wanted to.
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

Leonard’s first Thanksgiving in San Francisco had gone better than he’d expected it to. He’d put his name at the top of the list to work holidays, since it wasn’t like he had any family to speak of and sitting alone in his apartment on Thanksgiving drinking bourbon and watching football while making himself mad about head injuries just sounded depressing. Jim had offered, several times, to bring Leonard to Thanksgiving with his friends, a sort of odd group of people who he’d heard of but never officially met, but he declined. He didn’t want to overstep, especially not in the face of the rapidly evolving and still somewhat fragile nature of their relationship. Maybe next year. For now, he contented himself with staying at the hospital the better part of the day and treating Thanksgiving-typical ailments such as various injuries by out of shape old men trying to play football, alcohol poisoning from those more sad and alone than he was, and broken noses clearly resulting from someone getting a little too heated about politics at their family dinner. Really, there were worse things than Thanksgiving in the emergency department. Namely, New Years in the emergency department. Or, God, the 4th of July. Nothing quite spelled disaster like drunk people with explosives. He hoped that by volunteering to work Thanksgiving and Christmas, he’d be able to get out of those shit shows.

He planned on just going home and going to bed after his shift. It was late by the time he got off, close to midnight, but when he checked his phone on the way out the door, he found he had a message from Jim.

Jim Kirk: You should come over when you’re done with your shift

Leonard McCoy: Is this a booty call?

Jim Kirk: If I say yes does that make you more or less likely to come over?

Leonard McCoy: It’s midnight and I’ve been working all day, I’m exhausted

Jim Kirk: That wasn’t actually an answer to my question, Bones, but nice try

Jim Kirk: But seriously, come over I need your help with something and it does not involve my dick

Leonard McCoy: *eye roll emoji*

Jim Kirk: Also I need to give you something

Leonard McCoy: does that involve your dick?

Jim Kirk: No! 

Jim Kirk: Well maybe, I’m not ruling it out, but that’s not the plan specifically

Leonard McCoy: stop double texting me you heathen

Jim Kirk: You’re like my boyfriend now

Jim Kirk: So I’ll text you

Jim Kirk: As many times in a row

Jim Kirk: As I want

Leonard McCoy: Goddamn menace

Jim Kirk: Booonnneeessss 

Jim Kirk: Come ovveeerrrr

Leonard McCoy: Infant

Leonard McCoy: But fine, I’ll come over

Jim Kirk: Who’s double texting now?! Got ya!

Leonard didn’t know what to expect when he knocked on Jim’s door for what he was only 75% sure wasn’t a booty call. He’d come over anyways because, well, they’d had some pretty damn good sex in the past week since Jim finally admitted that he’d given up on trying to avoid his feelings for his old friend and long time object of formerly unrequited affection. Jim, however, opened the door in what was very clearly not something you’d wear for a booty call. The man in question was sporting red and green plaid pajama bottoms and the most over the top ugly Christmas sweater Leonard had ever seen in his life.

“What the fuck are you wearing?” Leonard asked, letting himself into Jim’s apartment, “Did you get confused as to what holiday it is?”

“Of course not! I’m taking Christmas card pictures! Or, rather, you’re taking my Christmas card pictures,” Jim explained, leading him into the tiny living room, which featured a sizable Christmas tree, already fully decked out for the season. Jim’s dogs, Fox and Bird, were curled up together on the couch, completely unbothered.

“Jim, it’s midnight, why the hell do we have to do this now?”

“Because the only way Fox and Bird will sit still is if they’re completely exhausted and they’re not small enough anymore for me to just hold them. You don’t have to, if you don’t want to, but I think it’ll be easier to have someone else taking the pictures.”

“It’s fine, but I ain’t gonna promise I’ll actually leave when I’m done. I’m beat, I may end up crashing here.”

Leonard meant it as a threat, but Jim just looked delighted.

“That’s fine! Also, I have pie for you.”

“Huh?”

“Pie,” Jim nodded, padding into his kitchen, opening the fridge, and pulling out a pie tin filled with half a dozen pieces of pie, each a different flavor. “I figured,” Jim explained, “Pie is objectively the best part of Thanksgiving, correct?”

“Correct,” Leonard agreed. There was something to be said about sweet potato casserole, but it was hard to hold a candle to a good slice of pie.

“So I thought that just because you spent your Thanksgiving saving lives and all that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have pie.”

“We had pie in the break room at work, actually.”

“Oh,” Jim looked a bit crestfallen, “Well, um, anyways, one of the things we always do at Thanksgiving with my friends is we each buy or make a pie. ‘Cause pie’s the best part of Thanksgiving. So I brought some back for you, if you’re not all pied out.”

It dawned on Leonard that Jim wasn’t simply offering to allow him to have some of his leftovers, but that the entire reason why this little mish mash grouping of pie existed was because Jim had been thinking about him during his Thanksgiving dinner and made sure he would have some pie for Thanksgiving. It was actually almost painfully sweet, and Leonard’s response, with this new information, just made him sound like a bit of an ungrateful dickhead.

“I didn’t realize you got this for me, I figured it was just your leftovers,” he explained, because this time around he and Jim had agreed to build their relationship on a solid ground of strong communication, so he wasn’t going to let the little things slide. “Thank you so much, Jim, this was...really damn sweet of you.”

Jim blushed all the way to the tips of his ears but he was smiling easily,

“It’s not a big deal, I just wanted you to be happy on Thanksgiving too. You don’t have to eat it all right now. In fact, maybe you could eat it later because I really want to get these pictures out of the way.”

“Sure,” Leonard agreed, although he did lift the saran wrap from the pie dish and swipe a finger through the whipped cream topping one of the pieces of pie, then sucked it off his finger. Jim watched the movements in a way that made him wonder if they were actually going to get to those Christmas cards after all, but he decided that could wait until later. So he kissed Jim quickly, muttered his thanks again, and declared they should probably get a move on with the pictures before he fell asleep while taking them.

The problem was, it was far too late for the charming and completely adorable picture Jim painted seated in front of the Christmas tree in that absurd outfit which he accented with a goddamn Santa hat, an arm around each of his dogs. It was heart melting. Leonard took the pictures, all while fully unable to stop himself from thinking about how lucky he was to have Jim in his life again, and for them to be in a relationship now.

“Bones, what the hell is your face doing right now?” Jim asked, tilting his head to rest it atop Bird, his yellow lab who was standing up next to him. His Australian Shepard, Fox, had fallen asleep in his lap.

“My face ain’t doin’ anything,” Leonard grumbled.

“Yeah it is,” Jim argued, “You look...smitten.”

“Yeah well maybe I am,” he admitted, “Now show your pretty little face to the camera and let’s get this over with.”

Jim grinned and laughed. Leonard took a picture as he did so. It was a good one.

“Now you get in this one,” Jim offered, beckoning Leonard over. Leonard gaped at him for a moment. Only a couple weeks ago Jim had still been trying to take it slow but now he wanted them to take Christmas cards pictures together? “I don’t mean for the cards,” he clarified, noticing the look on Leonard’s face, “You’re not dressed for it, and I feel like it’s a bit fast for that anyways. But ya know I realized I don’t have any pictures of us since college. It’s just for us.”

Leonard agreed, set the camera to take a few pictures automatically, and jumped into the picture with Jim. They swung their arms around each other casually, and Leonard was tired down to his...well down to his bones, but it was hard not to smile brightly with his arms around Jim and Bird putting her front paws up on his shoulder. Then, for the last shot, he knocked off Jim’s Santa hat, pulled his fingers through blond hair, and leaned in to kiss the shit out of the gorgeous, wonderful, amazing man at his side. That had been a pretty damn good picture too. It hadn’t gone in the card, but maybe it was Leonard’s phone background for a while.


	2. Their Second Thanksgiving

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They said I didn't have to, but gotta give a little credit to user houxvertetbruyere for giving me the idea of Leonard and Jim in matching Christmas pajamas two years later.

Leonard was once again working on Thanksgiving, although this year it was less because he had nowhere else to be and more because he had to work either that or Christmas, and Jim wanted him off on Christmas more, so he spent yet another Thanksgiving in the emergency department while his boyfriend had Thanksgiving dinner with all his friends. Well, all  _ their _ friends now, really.

This year, going over to Jim’s after work was a given. He’d been promised yet another pie sampler and they were going to take holiday card pictures together. They were sending them out jointly this year, and by some strange twist of fate when Jim had come over with the goddamn _matching_ _Christmas footie pajamas_ he expected them both to wear this year, he’d been more touched at the prospect of being in Jim Kirk’s famous holiday cards than he was annoyed at the outfit he’d be forced into.

After his shift, he headed to Jim’s apartment and let himself in as he’d long since had a key and was greeted by an excited Bird, who Jim somehow managed to get a pair of antlers on. Jim’s lab had always loved Leonard, pretty much from day one. Although, really, labs seemed to like most people. His boyfriend was sitting on the floor playing tug of war with Fox, who’d been spared the antlers although she was wearing a festive bandana.

“Bones!” Jim greeted him with a smile, “How was work? You brought your outfit, right?”

“Oh, what a shame, I left it at home,” he drawled, throwing the bag containing the goddamn pajamas onto the counter as he spoke, “Now where’s that damn pie.”

“No pie yet!” Jim exclaimed, hopping off the floor to block Leonard from reaching the fridge, kissing him quickly as he did so, “If you spend all night eating pie you’ll just be in a food coma and that doesn’t make for a very good picture. First pictures, then pie. Now get changed.”

“I can’t believe you’re making me wear this,” Leonard grumbled as he stripped off his scrubs, holding eye contact with his boyfriend as he pulled off his clothes, hoping maybe he could distract Jim with sex. Although that would really only delay this process, sooner or later he was going to have to take these pictures.

Jim must’ve seen right through him because he just laughed and tossed him that goddamn onesie before turning his attention to Bird, who had shaken off her antlers.

“I look like a goddamn idiot,” Leonard complained as he joined his boyfriend in front of the Christmas tree. “And for that matter, so do you.”

“That’s the  _ point _ , Bones. I always wear something ridiculous in my holiday cards, it’s funny, and having you in something normal would just be weird. Besides, you’re kinda cute in that.”   
“Oh God, please don’t tell me this monstrosity is doing it for you.”

“Not like that! I just think you look cute and charming is all. Everyone who gets these cards is gonna be jealous that you’re mine.”

“Oh, quit tryin’ to butter me up,” Leonard rolled his eyes and, although it was completely at odds with his words, kissed Jim on the cheek. Jim shot him a soft smile before he jumped up to set the camera up.

The two of them took a series of pictures in those absurd pajamas, joined by Jim’s dogs who, despite still being highly energetic, were just a little better at sitting still for pictures than they had been the previous year. It was...fun. For years, he’d been getting holiday cards from Jim, just a few shots of the man by himself wearing something stupid, later joined by his dogs, that he sent out to everyone he knew. For the first time ever, Jim’s holiday cards would feature another person and it was going to be Leonard. Somehow, even after a year together and longer since they’d reconnected, this all felt surreal sometimes. This little photoshoot felt somewhat domestic, but in a fun and comfortable way, not in the boring way. He couldn’t help but hope, as they posed in front of the camera which snapped photos on a timer, that Jim would never send out another solo holiday card again. He wanted to be in all of them.

After Jim was satisfied with the pictures they’d gotten, he no longer wanted to stand in the way of Leonard and the pie sampler he’d brought back for him. The pair settled onto the couch, still in those damn pajamas, as Leonard ate pie out of the tin with a fork. There were 6 flavors, just like last year, and he wanted to try a bite of each. Obviously he wasn’t going to eat the whole thing that night, but there was no harm in having a few bites of each of the pieces his boyfriend had brought him.

They laughed and talked as Leonard ate the pie, Jim sometimes snagging the fork to steal a bite for himself. Jim had all these stories about his Thanksgiving, most of which featured their friends acting like the delightful bunch of weirdos they were. He missed it, he didn’t anticipate liking Jim’s friends so much but now they felt like just as much his friends as they were his partners’. 

“So, Bones, how much money do you make?” Jim asked, apropos of absolutely nothing after finishing a story featuring Scotty, a deep fried turkey, and narrowly avoided 911 calls. Leonard nearly choked on the coconut cream pie in his mouth out of the sheer randomness of the question.

“Why do you ask?” he finally said.

“Just wondering.” Please, as if Jim Kirk was ever “just wondering” anything. Pretty much everything he did or said had some kind of reason behind it.

“Not enough to make it worth any decent gold digger’s time, I’ll tell you that much.”

“Oh, come on, Bones. If I just wanted to date a hot doctor I’d go for like a neurosurgeon at that fancy ass hospital downtown, not the ER doc at the shitty county hospital,” Jim rolled his eyes. “It just seems kinda weird we’ve never like seriously talked about money, right? We’ve been together for a year.”

“Sure, but there hasn’t really been anything to talk about,” Leonard pointed out. He never kept secrets from Jim, about anything, but specific financial conversations just had yet to be relevant. It wasn’t like he was opposed to talking about this, but he knew Jim was up to something and while he didn’t think it was something  _ bad _ he still wanted to know what it was. “Spill, darlin’. What’s this all about?”

“Fine,” Jim groaned dramatically, “Whatever. So, my lease is up at the end of the year, and yours is up in January. I’m looking at apartments but I need to know what we’d be able to afford. Ya know, if we moved in together.”

Leonard felt himself grinning like an idiot. Really, he’d been meaning to bring that subject up. He and Jim spent most nights together anyways, even though they didn’t live all that close to each other, and it was just getting a little absurd. He felt like he practically had a complete other set of things at Jim’s place, as Jim did at his. He didn’t just have a drawer, half of his clothes lived in Jim’s apartment at this point. Really, for all practical purposes they’d moved in together months ago.

“You could always just move in with me,” he suggested, a smile still pulling at the corners of his mouth.

“I looked into that actually, but your place has this draconian one dog policy.”

“You could always get rid of this one,” Leonard nudged Bird with his right foot, as she was sleeping on his left, “Damn thing’s cutting off my circulation.”

“She loves you,” Jim grinned. Leonard rolled his eyes. Both of Jim’s dogs loved him, but his boyfriend’s lab had always had a strange attachment to him. He actually quite liked the dog, as Jim was well aware. “She has good taste.” Jim spoke softer this time, looking up through his long blond lashes. Something about that look, this conversation, pulled at Leonard’s heart strings, so he took the other man’s face in his hands and kissed him softly.

“You taste like chocolate pie,” Jim complained weakly, pulling away after a few minutes of sweet kisses to rest his forehead against his boyfriend’s.

“Hmm, seems like that’s your fault, actually,” Leonard teased, nipping at Jim’s lip one more time. Jim laughed softly and tangled his hand into the other man’s messy dark hair.

“Yeah, seems like it. You really wanna do this? The whole living together thing?”

“‘Course I do, Jim. We practically already are. I always sleep better next to you anyways.”

Jim beamed brighter than the sun. Leonard would do anything for that smile. “Christ, Bones. If only college me could see us now.”

“Real life’s never gonna be like your fantasies, darlin’. It’s always gonna be messier.”

“Sure. It’s also better. I never thought I’d be this happy, this  _ comfortable _ .”   


“I love you, Jim,” Leonard whispered, because it was all he really could think of to say in the face of that. His partner nodded against his forehead then kissed him again, but not before whispering back,

“Love you too, Bones.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow. So that's the end of Trektober. It's been exhausting, but overall a really good experience for me, and I had a lot of fun! I'm definitely going to keep writing for this ship, but I'm gonna appreciate the lack of deadlines so who knows what I'll be posting next? Certainly not me.
> 
> Also: aside from the two unfinished Trektober works I have, I'm planning sequels to my Maine fic and my Stranded on a Planet fic. If there are any other sequels anyone is interested in, feel free to drop me a comment, I totally take suggestions!
> 
> Hope you had even half as much fun reading these as I had writing them. Thanks to everyone who commented, left kudos, or even just read and enjoyed any of my works this month! I really appreciate it. <3


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